The Role of Religion In Causing Rape

The Nerd's discussion is very popular and spirited, so I suggest breaking it up into subcategories, so as not to be inundated with comments.

I've always felt that religion weaves a pernicious web in human behavior. Making people to associate guilt and shame with our natural bodies is a crime against humanity. Religious orthodoxy takes a wonderful gift of nature and

If sex were a positive and natural activity, I believe rape would diminish and eventually cease in an enlightened society.

Well done Geoff. Every once in a while a friend of mine drives a limo for Rev. John Hagee of a San Antonio Baptist Church. I'm trying to think of a way I can get my friend to show this video to the pious reverend. He's a captive audience. His several bodyguards might not think so, however.

Put it on a DVD. Put a sticker on it that says, "How a camel can go through the eye of a needle" (playing on him being rich and the verse about rich men) or anything really that would pique his curiosity. Have him place it in the limo in plain sight with the DVD player taunting him until he sticks it in and hits play. The downside is he might loose a customer. If he places his baggage in the trunk, he could slip it into the baggage.

It really doesn't surprise me. We have heard this same story exposed in the news over and over. I don't think they really believe what they are preaching. I wonder how many there are who do the same, just for the money. I would bet that a surprising percent of preachers are closet atheists. I would be willing to bet around half! Or at least fighting their inner self to not be one. What say you?

A horrid book and a horrible god indeed Steph S. Otherwise what type of god would force an innocent young rape victim to get married to her rapist!

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 New International Version (NIV)

28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[a] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

I don't think it's as simple as if sex were positive and natural, the church would not exhibit so many neuroses around sex.

This is because the Bible was written, in part, by rapists and pedophiles. If you read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, you'll notice that the writers identify with Lot and praise him as a hospitable and virtuous man ... who then goes on to offer his own daughters to be raped by strangers, and later when his wife has died he himself gets drunk and rapes them, and impregnates them (both).

But the story places the blame on HIS DAUGHTERS (who were, presumably, minors?) and says that THEY GOT HIM DRUNK and raped him!

What kind of mindset do you think it requires to write these events with this perspective?

Was NOT LOT responsible to ensure that he stayed sober and not rape his two girls?

Then we have, of course, Deuteronomy 22 where if a woman is raped and she cannot scream loud enough to be heard, it's HER fault and people must stone her to death.

The Bible blames the victim. Until and unless one gets rid of Biblical moral authority with its inhumane distortions, no true ethics can flourish.

“Until and unless one gets rid of Biblical moral authority with its inhumane distortions, no true ethics can flourish.”

Hiram, I been saying precisely that for years.

Consider this lovely paragraph from Mirror Reversal written in 2008.

He led Cynthia and her boyfriend to the front of the mirror. “It’s time to go back to the other side of the mirrorverse. On this side, the very pillars of society—the judgment of right and wrong—are decayed and corrupt. Go back to your world of florid universities, instead of overcrowded cities. Go back to where Reason is God, instead of Money. Go back to where the human condition determines what’s legal and moral, not the economic interests of a few misguided war mongers benighted by greed and superstition. Go back to the world where the welfare and happiness of future humanity are more important than the luxury and comfort of the rich and powerful. Go back to where the biodiversity of nature is considered sacred and not plastic relics and figurines. Go back to where species consciousness protects the animal world and Earth consciousness protects our precious rain forests and coral reefs for future generations. Go back to where consciousness is based on ancestral wisdom and not Madison Avenue conditioning.

I hear ya, Hiram. How about weighing in on my latest blog post, Ten Reasons Not To Believe. It's more up to date. They were just talking about the same point you just made. Check out Barbara's Compilation.